I wonder why I do this to myself sometimes. To get so injured for anything. I blame my sword for this. Being able to heal like that messes with your sense of self-preservation.

  Even with something like that, though, only an idiot should be willing to risk his life like this. After all, pain is pain regardless of how trivial your injuries are.

  On top of that, I had to do it to save this group of idiots. I think that is the main thing pissing me off. Even right now, I can feel the variety of wounds that I have gotten in this fight. My entire body looks like a patchwork of bruises. Even the slightest of movements sends ripples of pain throughout my body.

  The most serious is a stab in my chest. It didn't go too deep, with the strike itself hitting my ribs. It seems to have broken my rib, though. It is not a particularly serious wound. The problem with it is that I had taken it after I was forced to shut down my sword. Otherwise, I would be able to heal this in a few moments.

  At least my other wounds are healed enough that movement won't threaten to open up those wounds. I guess that I could heal the wound in my chest as well. I have enough vital mana stored up in the sword to heal myself fully. After that, though, I will need to feed on somebody's vital mana to recharge my sword.

  Right now, that is not a favour that I want to owe to any faction. I think that I might be the only neutral party here. Already, the searchers and the legion have begun to ally with each other. At the very least, this mission has planted the seeds for that. The Searchers already have a pretty good relationship with the guards. That means that right now, I have no idea as to which direction they are planning to throw their lot with.

  The problem with the searchers is that I have no idea what they want. Leave aside what they want in general. That is something nobody knows. I haven't even figured out why they were so insistent on forcing us to hunt this minotaur. In short, this means that right now I would prefer to keep myself far away from all the politics.

  I guess that I could feed on my troop as well, but that is a risky process. I don't want to compromise their ability to fight now. They are the only people I can trust right now. I seriously hope that this alliance between the searchers and the legion fails. Their success would mean that I will have to throw my support to the Aegis then. That is the only way that we will be able to maintain a balance here.

  Well, that would give quite a bit of power to Alfred. I will have to gamble on the fact that Alfred and the mayfires want to find those necromancers as much as I do.

  Well, I look at Anthony as I am thinking about this. The man seems to have sensed that as he looks back at me. Looking at the venom in his eyes makes it clear that any form of diplomacy is going to be almost impossible. It looks like the man is going to take what has happened in the last couple of hours very personally. Personally, I think it is about the rock. Stuff like that is usually given to the commanding officer.

  Naturally, the man will be ignoring the fact that I have just risked my life to give them the time to run away. Anyway, all of this is something that I will have to worry about in the future. The minotaur is my only concern. I don't even know how the others must be faring in a fight with a minotaur.

  Well, even if things are going badly, we are going there to reinforce them. That should be enough to turn things in our favour. I think it is unlikely. After all, I would be dead right now if the minotaur could control its undead properly.

  By the way, we are moving deeper into the eastern tunnel right now. The troop is moving carefully to make sure that the undead won't be ambushing them. The attempt in the crossroads has made them too vigilant, if you ask me.

  They have survived the collapse of the crossroads. I would say that they are relatively unscathed by it as well. Well, I would have been left with serious questions about their capabilities if they had failed. All of the cards were with the Aegis from the start. Many of those cards were provided by me. At great personal cost, at that.

  By the way, the destruction of the crossroads means that the undead there are not a concern. The ten or so undead that managed to enter the tunnel were promptly destroyed. With the destruction of the crossroad, right now my main priority is to go to the Searchers. They are the only people who will be able to get us out of this place. (They naturally have not bothered to tell me how they planned to do this.)

  We have destroyed the crossroads now. There is a pretty significant chance that the entire labyrinth is going to come down now. There is no way that I am staying away from the searchers. I have no desire to die by being crushed to death. That would be such a pointless death.

  The deeper that we go in this tunnel, the more that you can see the signs of the battle that has taken place at this place. Many craters have been left in the tunnels. They are becoming more and more frequent the deeper we go. I assume that these have to be left by the searchers. While I don't know what exact spell of theirs might have caused it but only they are destructive enough.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Not that the sentinels are particularly weak. They are just more focused on their violence. Even as we are speaking, I am studying all of this. The most prominent are the remains of the undead. (Do you call them corpses?)

  There are two types of such remnants in this place. The first must have been left by the Searchers. These are almost shattered as if the Searchers have put them through a grindstone. (Seriously, I should pay more attention to the type of spells that they use. What spell can do something like that?)

  The second type of skeletons is in a more pristine condition. Most have their spines or their joints shattered. Some have a hole in their head that John must have left. I am so busy studying the skeleton remains that I don't notice that we have stumbled into an open cavern. There is certainly no hand of the minotaur in the creation of this place. I don't even need to study the place to tell that.

  That is good since we have plunged right in the middle of a fight. I prepare to join the fight as I realise that I don't need to. Even as I study the battlefield, I can see that things are going in our favour only. The battlefield is divided into two parts. The first is the Searchers, who are fighting against the undead army.

  They are completely outnumbered, but the Searchers are holding their own. The hands of the mages constantly flash as they keep forming multiple spells. Fireballs, wind spears and water bolts are just a few of the spells that I recognise. All three of them are casting at least three spells at a time.

  These spells are mostly meant to buy time as the spells trip, freeze or maim the creature. Still, they are in no way in as bad a situation as I had been. I had to face two groups of these creatures alone, while there are three people here. They are also facing a quarter of the undead that I had faced.

  Well, while their battle might be going well, things are even better with the other group. The sentinels are attacking the minotaur. Well, they are winning this fight. They are doing it so thoroughly that I wonder for a second whether we were even needed here. I guess I should start with the minotaur.

  The creature is massive, towering above even Lauren. (The creature is a few feet taller than Lauren.) Even with how large it is, the most interesting feature is its face.

  The thing is that this is not the first time that I have seen demihumans. That is why I can assure you that they look more like humans than their animal counterparts.

  The minotaur is the exact opposite of that. Its head looks exactly like that of a bull. Its fingers are also not as well-formed as a human's. It is like somebody has taken the statue of a bull and tried to twist it into a humanoid shape.

  The creature can still hold a massive axe in its hand. Right now, the creature is wildly swinging the axe and is not really hitting anything. Every strike is blocked by Lauren, who is right now trading blows with the creature. It is good to see that she can fight that well. (Especially after her fight with the false giant.)

  Surrounding these two fighting figures, you have the other two members of the group. Emilia is naturally the least effective as her daggers spark against the minotaur. (She is pretty powerful if you put her against the correct foe.)

  John is having better luck with it. By the way, even John makes use of sword magic, though his magic is less flashy than that of Anthony. Much of his magic is focused on increasing the durability and sharpness of his sword. Nothing that seems terrifying unless you are fighting the man.

  That is why his sword leaves clear marks wherever it strikes the beast. I am sure that all of the damage to the creature has been done by John and his sword.

  Eric and my troop are also there. They are busy in a fight of their own. They are shooting arrows at a group of ten to twelve of those massive eagles. They are also doing no damage to the creatures. Their goal is just to keep the creatures busy while the others fight. Otherwise, knowing Eric, he would have already brought down half of them.

  Well, even as I have been describing this, the Aegis have joined the battle. They are presently assisting the searchers. I would have liked to join the battle myself. With how things are going, it would be wiser for me to rest. After all, the minotaur will be dead within twenty minutes if my estimates are right.

  (After about twenty minutes.)

  I wish that something was interesting about how the minotaur had fallen. It died without being able to hit the sentinels even once.

  The creature must have been weaker than the searchers had expected. After all, we had made up all our plans based on their reports. I have no desire to think beyond that right now. I am sure there is some scheme here. It is just beyond me. I can feel the exhaustion catch up to me as I look at the creature's corpse. What can I say? I think that I am the most injured person in this group.

  At this moment, I realise that I just want to crash in my bed and sleep for a week. Not that I will be able to. I have to pilot the ship.

  "Searcher Amelia, now that we have gotten rid of the creature, it is time for us to return to the ship. We have left it unguarded for too long." I speak. "Cast whatever magic that you need to cast. Let us be on our way."

  "Why would we need to cast any magic for that?" the lady replies to me. "Just walk and you will be out of this place."

  As she says this, the lady points to the ceiling of the cave. I hadn't realised it in the heat of the battle, but the cave slopes upwards. The streak of light at the end of this path tells me that it connects to the ground above us.

  As soon as I look at the entrance to the place, realisation hits me like a hammer.

  "You just wanted to study the damn ruin, didn't you?" I speak. My tone is carefully neutral. No need to make any lasting enemies. "That is why you made us chase this damn beast. So that you could study its labyrinth."

  "Well, I would have thought that was obvious.", the searcher Amelia replies as she begins to grin at me like a devil. "After all, the labyrinth must have been supplied with air from somewhere after all. We had expected there to be an exit like this."

  I guess that I should be more frustrated right now. I had gotten so injured just because the damn Searchers wanted to study a ruin. The only thing that I can think of is that I want to go to the ship already.